Anti Fed Ed Warriors, have you heard about“Ready By 21”?! It’s to ensure ALL students are ready for college/career/life by the time they reach 21 years of age. What group is responsible for Ready? The Forum for Youth Investment. (*Note: we’ll look into them later in this article.)

While ‘Ready By 21’ isn’t new (nor its agenda), it is timely to look into with the recent news that Sec. DeVos believes all American schools should be just like their European counterparts. This DeVos news, of course, is a great supporter of the proposed U.S. Departments of Education and Labor merging, too. I covered that in my last article, as well as a trio of Facebook live videos, too.

Warriors, several nationally recognized groups have shown how the merger is toxic for us. Many independent media shows have also picked up the banner of #nomerger, yet the petition supporting our opposition is crawling along in support.

We MUST get serious about having this petition reach its 100,000 signature goal, otherwise we LOSE an opportunity to be heard in DC!

How does DeVos’s belief mirror support for the merger? That recent article detailed her belief that workforce readiness is far more important than academics.

Other CCSS Machine agenda items about being so much like Europe are:
1) It’s a way to usher in ‘globalism’ or ‘global education for all’;
2) It’s a gentle way to introduce the ‘collectivism’ incorporated into workforce based education and divorce your mind from ‘individualism’.
3) If this is sounding like a lot of United Nations double speak to you, you’re right on target! It is.

However, Warriors, here’s ‘the other shoe’ in relationship to “Ready by 21”; it’s “Credentialed by 26″.
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Before I give you more details into 21:26 (as I’ll call it), think about this: the CURRENTEuropean Commission’s Youth Guarantee Program funnels young people through a similar track.

It targets those students of ALL educational choices and backgrounds between the ages of 16 and 24.
Basically, if you’re not in some sort of school training, you’re working for someone else. Why? Because working for yourself doesn’t boost the collective economy near as much as working for local businesses. Think I’m joking? Watch the European Commission’s Youth Guarantee original promotional video:

Warriors, if you’d like to learn more about the European Commission’s ties to the European Union, go here. If you’d like more on how the European Union is tied to the United Nations, go here. For a visual on how these are all tied together:

As far as how all this type of alignment is paid for in America, it’s either tax payer funds or P3 (public private partnerships). Each have many strings to bind our education to a workforce based system.

In Europe, the funds come from 2 places, as well. One way is through the ‘member states’ and their commitment to a collective budget. In the budget are apprenticeships, higher education fees, and more. This YEI (Youth Employment Initiative) not only ‘compliments’ the Guarantee Initiative, but targets regions with low employment. The second way Europe funds all this is the ESF (European Social Fund).

The ESF works on a local, regional, and, national level in ALL employment related programs, agencies, groups, and, businesses across each ‘member state’. It’s main ‘attracting tool’?! Vocational training/school.
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Warriors, in America ‘vocational training/school’ was re-branded to Career Tech Education (CTE) with the Perkins Act, the WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act), the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Act), as well as ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act)! The current re-written versions of the existing HEA (Higher Education Act), also use CTE. What’s more is CTE IS Common Core for workforce ‘human capital’!!

How the CCSS Machine SEES your students and all Americans .

Warriors, how would the U.S. Dept. of Education and U. S. Dept. of Labor’s merger mirror the EU’s funding? It would combine the funding based off the existing funding streams in use by WIOA, ESSA, STEM, Perkins funding, as well as the P3s.
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On the State level, we only need to look to our General Assemblies or State Congressional laws/bills. For example, NC has a bill currently waiting on the ‘long session’ to convene where funds for MORE CTE are not only generated off the taxpayer’s backs, but includes federal funds, and P3s, to guarantee all 100 counties have Career Tech Education for more jobs for better economic standing! (*Note: the Bill is called the “Future Ready Student Act”)

Set up for the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’?! Could this be another kind of segregation our nation is gearing up for?! Think about it.

If you’ve read my blog for long you may recall I shared with you the NC Prosperity Zones. These Zones play into the workforce aligned education shift. When I shared this awful news back in 2015, I posed the question about this type of educratic overreach creating segregation in our nation. Knowing how the UN’s plan is playing out already in American education, I don’t think it’s a question anymore. I think we have our answer. We know the nation’s been split into CTE based College/Career Ready regions. If we didn’t know better, we’d think this was totally unrelated to the EU’s regionalism. But, then since the EU’s ways are the UN’s ways, we know regionalism is also, a United Nations tool.

Warriors, the question you should ask your State: Is this already in place where I live? The demand we should be making is to HALT the continued alignment of work and education in DC.

Forum for Youth Investment:

Warriors, what you see is a 2011 version of the Forum’s ‘snapshot’ for your student, school, and community. You can find the entire ‘log’ of details, here. I urge you to not only read the entire Plan for ‘stakeholders’, but compare it to the EU’s YEI and ESF. You’ll find they are not so far removed from each other. You’ll also see that the Forum for Youth Investment had partnered with Corporate Voices for Working Families in the 2011 stakeholder’s Plan.

Corporate Voices for Working Families was begun in 2001 with funding from the Marriott Foundation. Other CCSS Machine foundations like the Gates and Kellogg were also helpful. If you’ve heard of the “Learn and Earn” Initiatives across America, this is the source of them.

Warriors, you’ll also want to see the Congressionally mapped out RoI (Return on Investment) information the Forum has on our youth across America. If ever we doubted that our kids were being ‘data raped’, this will help prove it. If you’d like to see the dollar figure attached to your child form this 2017 document, look below:

Oh, and the Forum’s“Ready by 21, Credentialed by 26”? That’s supported by the Gates Foundation. Here’s a screen shot of one of the publications for 21:26:

To access all the archives for “Ready by 21, Credentialed by 26”, go here. To see the October 2018 upcoming Forum conference where you’ll see SEL (social emotional learning) lumped in with all the ‘readiness’, look here. Currently, it appears 3 States are in the Forum’s focus : VA, TN, and, FL. If you live in these 3 States, this is your opportunity to use the current merger petition to fight back!

If you live in other States, you’ll want the complete list of previously targeted States and cities found here. (*For example, NC, where I live had 4 different Ready by 21 programs started between 2009 and 2015. Those programs are firmly in place NOW. For other States, their entire system is a “Ready by 21” one!)

Closing:

Warriors, we’ve not a second to lose! Every single American from within our borders is in the sights of the CCSS Machine. The Ed/Labor merger plays right into this. The shift for workforce readiness encroaches into every school choice and every home across our nation. It’ll keep going unless we fight back! We cannot simply empty the public schools and think this will go away. We must demand our local, State, and, federal systems completely divorce the United Nations’ systematic demise of our education!

We must realize that NO school choice will escape this ‘readiness’ regime. We certainly know that each of us is worth MORE than a mere $30,000.00! We certainly know that all this violates our U.S. Constitution, our civil rights, AND, our pursuit of happiness! Join us in being a force to be reckoned with when it comes to saving our youth! Stop the scorning of your children.

Anti CCSS/ESSA Warriors, it’s one thing that Congress is in its recess right now, but have you seen what they did just before leaving D.C.? Look above. Both of these, HR5587 AND S3271 made their debut in July 2016.

If you have followed my research and writing for long, you know that one of my specialties is ‘Common Core’ after high school, regardless of where the PreK through High School is completed.

If you haven’t followed me long, then you haven’t seen how, in the fall of 2014, I exposed the Adult Common Core State Standards, or how, I exposed how the Career and Technical Education was changed to Career Tech Education. You haven’t seen where I tied Career Clusters, Career Pathways, The American Apprenticeship Initiative, STEM, and STEM to STEAM, back to Common Core. To keep the focus on what is current, I will not be sharing the links to each of these juggernauts. However, if you need the information, please, let me know.

The Purposed Legislative Scramble ( more background before we tackle the ‘latest’ news):

In one of my articles published not long after the ink was dry on ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), I told you the WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act) was embedded in ESSA about 65 times. WIOA is also linked to HEA (Higher Education Act) via the Carl Perkins funding.

WIOA also ties back to the American Apprenticeships and STEM (along with the STEM to STEAM). ESSA has STEM embedded too. Most citizens have been shocked when I share with them that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; the ‘a’ was added later and embedded the Arts in STEM to create STEAM) is NOT separate from CCSS (Common Core State Standards) but is in fact a product of the interaction between the PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and the PresidentUSINGCCSS as a detractor from what was really happening! Just as CCSS is no friend to education reform, the way STEM has been rolled out, is not a friend either. Why? The goal of STEM is not education, but a ‘workforce nation’. Does this sound familiar?!

Think of it this way:

Warriors, there has been NO mistake about the workforce shift. There has been no law related (in any way, shape, form, or fashion) to education without it. These have been carefully plotted moves in the making for YEARS. As other researchers have also shown you, the movement is global, not exclusive to America.

So, it shouldn’t really be a surprise to find our Congress creating MORE legislation along the streamlined workforce path already in place.

What’s a Warrior to do?! Speak up to your Congress members. Especially if they are sponsoring either HR5587 or S3271. Spread the knowledge, many citizens in America are convinced that CCSS (and now ESSA) is ONLY K-12 and in traditional type schools. THIS IS A LIE, regardless who tells you!

ESSA has birth to first grade readiness, special needs alignment, dual and concurrent enrollment, AP or IB classes/courses, and every conceivable education choice ensnared. Either through the digital assessments (to take place inside and outside the home), funding (not just education funds, but health/human services, labor, commerce, etc.), FASFA forms, and/or wrap around services for entire communities. ESSA is written to conform, not to free States.

HR 5587, Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act:

Here’s what we need to know as Warriors Against Fed Led Ed:
1) Being championed as a ‘bipartisan’ piece of great legislation, 5587, passed the Ed and Workforce (U.S. House of Representatives) by a vote of 37-0.
2) 5587 was introduced by Rep. Thompsonof PA and Rep. Clark from MA.3) Press release is dated July 2016,Congress is in recess until early September.
4) The purpose of 5587? “reauthorizes and reforms the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to help more Americans enter the workforce with the skills they need to compete for high-skilled, in-demand jobs.”5) Be sure to read the other Representatives who are featured in the Press Release. Take note of Rep. Kline’s. He was a huge backer of ESSA before it was called ESSA. Speaking of such, remember when you step into the voting booths in November that the House of Representative’s education bill (HR5) went on to become key in ESSA’s language. Also remember the voting record of HR5..it had not a single “No” vote.
6) You will also see several bullet points about the great flexibility States will have to streamline work and education (there is even a shameless plug for how it will help taxpayers). As we have proven with ESSA, State and local flexibility is not true.
7) 5587 is 88 pages long. It takes effect 7/1/17. Subtle shifts in language (just as in ESSA) pack a powerful punch. How so? See for yourselves, “(A) by striking ‘‘academic and career and technical skills’’ and inserting ‘‘academic knowledge and technical and employability skills’’; (B) by inserting ‘‘and programs of study’’ after ‘‘technical education programs’’; (2) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘, including tech prep education’’; (3) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘and programs of study’’ after ‘‘technical education programs’’; and 5 (4) in paragraph (6), by inserting ‘‘or programs’’ after ‘‘education schools’’ ”8) You’ll also see other big shifts in the language, like ‘in demand’ occupations, regionally based education, competency based education, etc.
Get the download Act 5587:strengthening_career_and_technical_education_for_the_21st_century_act(*Note: I will be doing a more in-depth article about 5587 in the near future, as I will with
S3271)

S3271, Workforce Advance Act:

The Press Release from Sen. Bennet (CO)‘s website: https://www.bennet.senate.gov/?p=release&id=3742Again, bipartisanship is being heralded.
Again, ‘more choice’ in learning (a very false positive statement). See how Sen. Bennet’s website stated it, “give more high school students the opportunity to take career and technical education college courses that can help prepare them for success in the 21st century. The Workforce Advance Act will help strengthen and expand dual and concurrent enrollment and early college high school options as part of Perkins-supported career technical education (CTE) programs. Strong CTE programs can provide vital access to the knowledge and skills needed for job and career success.”

But that’s not all S3271 will do. Check out what teachers have to look forward to, “The bill would allow schools to use a portion of the funding they receive through the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act for tuition and fees for CTE college courses. It would also allow school districts to use funding to support teachers pursuing the credentials needed to teach these courses in their high schools, helping to remove a barrier to providing access to college credit. Finally, the bill would allow the Department of Education to use national CTE activities to help identify successful methods and best practices for providing dual or concurrent enrollment programs and early college high school career and technical education opportunities.”

Warriors, ‘region specific education’ is already written into ESSA. Teachers being trained to teach post-secondary readiness (for college and career) is already written into ESSA! ‘National activities’ and ‘CTE activities’ are also already written into ESSA!

Other tentacles of WIOA, HEA, STEM, and ESSA in S3271:
1) apprenticeships
2) public-private partnerships, especially in businesses
3) data mining and sharing of data between U.S. Dept. of Ed, U.S. Dept. of Labor, U.S. Commerce Dept., and all of these at the State levels, too.
4) more use of students as ‘lab rats’ for ‘evidence based research’.
5) how those in rural areas will be encompassed
6) special needs tracks for CTE will also increase

Where did the backbone for S3271 come from? According to the Senate’s supporting documents for S3271, the State Directors for CTE and the Assoc. for CTE created a document of principles for S3271. See: Senate Principles Crosswalk_FINAL

What you see below is the evidence to verify what my research has already shown,
1) that WIOA is, in fact embedded in ESSA.
2) that school counselors (per a White House led Initiative) are to influence students
(related will be the counselors at the one-stop-job/career-centers where non traditional students and those seeking a job will be influenced)
3) that ANY school receiving Perkins funding will be impacted (this includes the proprietary (for profit) schools and virtual schools.

Closing:

Reach out and contact a Congress member soon. If you Tweet, use any of the info above to create appropriate messages of dissent. If you have access to them in other social media, use whatever you need to make your points. Here is a list of the Congressional Twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/verified/lists/us-congress/members?lang=en

Can we stop Congress from passing these? I believe we can. Both have only been introduced. Both haven’t cleared their respective Chambers, much less crossed over. Neither has been signed into law yet. Let’s get busy, Warriors!

What you see below is from Dec. 2015, when Perkins Funding received an extension to continue funding across the nation for all those in CTE courses. It was signed just days after ESSA was passed into law.

The rope is tightening, Warriors, but we can break that rope with massive amounts of teamwork!

Hardly a new subject for me to write about, but more Common Core aligned evidence is popping up. Where did I get the above image from? A CCR Success Center!! You, too can visit their website to see just how fabulous of a job your state is doing when it comes to CCSS transitions from high school to college! http://www.ccrscenter.org/

Please first notice who houses this “Success Center”…AIR! (American Institutes for Research) A well known CCSS (Common Core State Standards) supporter, data miner! Funding, you ask? Why, the U.S. Dept. of Education, of course! Others involved ar the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), Forum for Youth Investment (FYI), National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), Quill Research Associates, LLC (QR), Achieve, Inc., American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), Change the Equation (CTEq), Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), College Board, CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), IDEA Partnership (includes the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s Office of Special Education Programs), National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), The National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), North Carolina New Schools, SHEEO (State Higher Education Executive Officers), and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship. To read a short description of each and to see how they have a hand in our higher education’s CCSS pot: http://www.ccrscenter.org/about-us/our-partners

Among the organization’s advisors is Dr. David Conley. I hope you took my advice from a couple of days ago and looked into his educational background, current educational philosophies and Common Core participation. You’ll be seeing his name in this post again.

Other things the “Success Center” does for our students:

Helping align our states to Common Core and create ‘success’ are what are called “Content Centers”. There are also “Regional Content Centers”. The Content Centers are run by WestED, AIR, Edvance, Temple University, and the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Regional Centers have the States divided into the color coded sections you see above. Each group is run by a select few organizations: WestED, SEDL(formerly Southwest Educational Development Laboratory), ICF International, University of Oklahoma, Educational Testing Service, AIR, Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, RMC Research, Education Northwest, and the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. So just what will I find for the state I live in? Plenty! Since you all know I live in NC, the first thing I noticed is the group of states with NC are in the “Southeast Comprehensive Center”, but I see SEDL (seen above). So my first question is “Why, when I don’t live in the Southwest, is North Carolina overseen by this group?”

Guess I have to click on the Southeast Group to find out. So, I do. I see lots of vivid colors, I see a smiling face of a lovely lady..then I see below her smile, these words, “she focuses on curriculum and instruction, particularly the Common Core State Standards, effective literacy practices, early childhood education, and professional development to improve literacy outcomes in districts and schools.” This lady is considered an expert. However, there are many other experts whom I found. Each with what their areas of expertise are and how it’s devoted to the CCSS. I click on the tab with my state’s name and instantly see 10 current Common Core projects going on!! It was curious for me when I saw the words “Past Projects”, so I found the tab for that, clicked and was appalled! CCSS projects, one after another.. From 2005 to 2012! Current projects range from early childhood education, to community wide readiness, to videos for math and English. I go on to discover the Southeast Center is developing a CoP (Community of Practice) with the neighboring states also included in our Grouping. Take a look at all that will be shared: http://secc.sedl.org/resources/community_of_practice/cop_resources.php

So what are the neighboring states up to? Well, according to this SE Center, Alabama’s getting the college/career readiness standards, Georgia’s getting the Career Tech Standards, South Carolina is assessing teachers, and Mississippi is getting the little learners ready for school success. Lovely, just lovely.

What I don’t see on this particular website, is where in NC, the office is located. Hhmmm..where can I find that? By going to the other SEDL Center…Texas! Once there I see that each of the Southeast states do indeed have contact information. NC’s is out on the Coast. (hint: if you are curious, look under the ‘contacts’ on the SEDL’s main site)

More ‘successes’:

Since our original intent for Thursdays is to expose Common Core beyond high school, let’s look at other post secondary ‘college/career readiness success’ resources.

Lumina Foundation’s publication from 2013 “A Path to Alignment: Connecting K-12 and Higher Education via the Common Core and Degree Qualifications Profile”. Authors are Dr. Conley (Educational Improvement Policy) and Dr. Gaston (Kent University). According the the “Executive Summary” of the paper, ‘The heart of the white paper lies in sections 5 and 6, which provide a crosswalk between the CCSS and the DQP. These sections show how alignments and differences between the two may point to a comprehensive preparedness strategy. They also offer a proposal for a multifaceted strategy to realize the potential synergy of the CCSS and the DQP for the benefit of high school and college educators and their students — and the nation.” Here’s the entire report: A_path_to_alignment

Achieve, Inc’s “Common Core State Standards and Career Technical Education: Bridging the Divide Between College and Career Readiness” study is also featured as a key resource. Like the Lumina publication above, the CCR Success Center wants to help you know, they are ‘all in’ to the success of Common Core alignment for your students. Now, I’ve written about this particular study before, so I know it’s loaded with tons of information you can use to inform legislators, school boards, and others who are convinced post high school CCSS is a myth.

The study was published in 2012, has the details on the CCSS/CTE/CCR teams that were formed. Here’s an excerpt from the “Executive Summary”, “Common Core State Standards & Career and Technical Education: Bridging the Divide between College and Career Readiness aims to provide guidance to state education leaders about how they can maximize the opportunity to better align academics and CTE through the implementation of the new CCSS by:

» Summarizing what state leaders are currently doing to integrate the CCSS and CTE;» Providing specific strategies and supporting examples of what particular states are doing and

» Identifying common barriers and challenges that state leaders face.”

The study will also reveal how the Perkins Act is the main federal funding source for CTE (Career Tech Education) and how the CCSS is taking advantage of this. Here’s another excerpt you’ll find eye-opening: “To establish a reference point on the current level of CTE involvement in CCSS implementation, Achieve and the Meeder Consulting Group developed a survey for state CTE directors and state CCSS coordinators to take collectively. The survey was implemented during a two-week window in November 2011. Drawing from the survey findings, eight states were selected for more in-depth interviews: California, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and Oregon. The purpose of the survey was to determine how state education agencies are including CTE leaders as stakeholders or partners in their CCSS implementation efforts.”

You’ll especially like that the study includes CCSS being written into CTE curriculum (see page 13, where Chapter 4 begins). Page 19 shares how CCSS/CTE align teachers were brought into the mix. Chapter 8, begins on page 22, and expressly details the alignment of post secondary education with Common Core, “To represent true college and careerreadiness, postsecondary administrators and faculty from the core academic disciplines and technical areas should be aware of and involved in implementation of the CCSS. Postsecondary CTE faculty can provide information about the kinds of literacy and math skills that will be necessary for students to succeed in their postsecondary CTE programs. Technical colleges are particularly important in these efforts given their role in delivering CTE at the postsecondary level. If secondary CTE educators are reluctant to embrace the CCSS, then this kind of input from postsecondary CTE faculty can reinforce the case for strengthening literacy and math in CTE programs.” See the rest: http://www.achieve.org/files/CCSS-CTE-BridgingtheDivide.pdf

A video:

From the CCR Success Center’s You Tube Channel (where you’ll find several CCSS/CCR/CTE webinars), here’s the one from the National High School Center back in 2013.

Closing:

I hope you have really found some very useful information in the last 3 posts. Each one has involved SHEEO, CCSSO, AIR, and the U.S. Dept. of Ed. The articles have been designed to be a one, two, and three punch in the face of the CCSS Machine. If you like, think of it in the ‘3 Strikes’ analogy. However you think about it, realize because each of these Three posts, ALL educational choices are involved. How? Because no matter what choice you’ve made for education in preK to 12th, we all have post secondary opportunities that are either publicly or privately funded. Some use both types of funding. It is becoming almost impossible to find a post secondary school NOT embracing either Common Core, Career Tech Common Core, College/Career Readiness or a combination of any of these. Remember, STEM is also woven into this mix, so the net that’s been cast over a our nation, has certainly gotten even wider than we first knew.